The protest was attended by nearly 1,000 people from Zonguldak, Sinop, Bartın, Ordu, Giresun, Trabzon, Rize and Tokat, as well as Samsun residents.

Demonstrators also protested plans to build a cement factory in Köseli in Samsun’s Kavak district. Villagers from the region came to the protest with stoves and pipes, reacting against the factory by lying on the ground.

Sami Evren, the chairman of the Confederation of Public Workers’ Unions, or KESK, also attended the demonstration. “If you waste nature for money … you cannot be a democrat,” Evren said. “Thus, the Justice and Development Party [AKP] cannot be a democratic party.”

“A vaccine for swine flu has been found, but a solution to the damage caused by power plants has not. Those who destroy the Black Sea are more dangerous than the swine flu,” Evren said.